Microsoft announces general availability of Azure IoT Edge, new Azure regions in China

Microsoft Azure CTO Mark Russinovich used the GeekWire Cloud Tech Summit to announce some important Azure-related news yesterday. First of all, Microsoft is expanding its global cloud infrastructure with two new Azure regions in China, doubling the number of Azure regions in this very important market. Russinovich also announced a new Azure Availability Zone in the Netherlands, which follow new zones in Iowa and Paris.

Azure IoT Edge, the company’s platform and service for running cloud intelligence on any device is now generally available and “production-ready.” The edge offering is also being updated with “increased flexibility, scalability, security, and more,” Russinovich said yesterday.

Lastly, the exec announced the preview of Azure Data Lake Storage Gen 2, a new cloud scale data lake designed for simplifying cloud analytics. New Azure Data Factory features including browser-based user interface have also hit general availability yesterday, and you can learn more on this separate blog post.